So that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
It is clear that Paul was a circumspect man who was full of concern as he awaited the day of judgment. On that day the Lord Jesus Christ will be revealed both to believers and to unbelievers. Then unbelievers will realize that what they did not want to believe is in fact true. Believers will rejoice, finding that what they believed in is more wonderful than they had imagined. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His second Advent, when you will receive from Christ an abundant supply of all graces, and your consummation in heavenly glory.
Although we lack no gift, nevertheless we await the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will then keep us secure in all things and present us unimpeachable when the day of our Lord Jesus Christ comes. The end of the world shall arrive, when no flesh may glory in his sight.
These praises are not uncritical, as the rest of the epistle makes clear. But they are inserted in order to prepare the Corinthians for the criticism which is to come. For whoever starts out with unpleasant words antagonizes his hearers. Paul starts by praising them in order to avoid this.
4. So that you come behind in no gift. A great question here arises. They who had been enriched in all utterance, so as in no respect to come behind in any gift, are they carnal? For if they were such at the beginning, much more now. How then does he call them carnal? For, says he, 1 Corinthians 3:1 I was not able to speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. What must we say then? That having in the beginning believed, and obtained all gifts, (for indeed they sought them earnestly,) they became remiss afterwards. Or, if not so, that not unto all are either these things said or those; but the one to such as were amenable to his censures, the other to such as were adorned with his praises. For as to the fact that they still had gifts; 1 Corinthians 14:26-29 Each one, says he, has a psalm, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation; let all things be done unto edifying. And, Let the prophets speak two or three. Or we may state it somewhat differently; that as it is ...
It is surely noteworthy that nobody doubted that it was kept by a Christian and Apostolic ordinance. So St. Paul argues from its Christian observance, in his rebuke of the Corinthians.
